Chapter 439 Rowena's Smile and Les's Intuition

When Dumbledore began to explain the rules of the Young Wizards' Tournament, the entire hall fell silent. Everyone pricked up their ears, especially those young wizards whose native language was not English, who stared at Dumbledore's lips intently, fearing that they would miss a word.

The shock brought by the appearance of the legendary wizard Godric Gryffindor was also overshadowed.

After all, no matter how great Gryffindor is, he can't play in the game, right? After all, the seven students participating in the game are provided by the organization called the Secret Order.

Most of the people present had never heard of the Secret Order, so naturally they didn't take it seriously. The only little respect they had was for Gryffindor's sake.

"With the help of people from all walks of life in the wizarding world, the competition venue has been prepared. Starting tomorrow, the competition will officially begin. Contestants from major magic schools, as well as independent contestants from the wizarding world, will be placed in the prepared competition venue and complete the prescribed competition tasks within the venue." Dumbledore spoke at a moderate pace and with clear enunciation, so that everyone in the auditorium could understand what he was saying.

In fact, the competition venue was mainly made by Rowena and Helga, but the two had told Dumbledore in advance that they wanted to keep a low profile, so Dumbledore deliberately concealed their contributions.

Upon learning that they would officially start the competition tomorrow, the young wizards in the audience became restless. They had not expected that time would be so tight.

However, considering that tomorrow is a day off, they are relieved. They can watch the game together on the day off, which will not affect their classes next week.

"We will provide each contestant with a crystal ball to broadcast their experiences in the venue. The contestants can choose to turn off the crystal ball, but they must use the crystal ball to report their current status and task completion status every day. We will publish the specific situation of each contestant on the school bulletin board according to the points obtained."

Dumbledore also told everyone present that Hogwarts has installed several large screens in the Quidditch stadium, which will broadcast the live performance of the contestants. Interested little wizards can go to the Quidditch stadium to watch the live broadcast.

"Due to the different levels of the contestants, the locations where the contestants initially place their weapons will also vary. This is something I must remind you of before the competition begins."

When Dumbledore said this, Lester frowned.

He smelled a target.

The strength of this contestant, it shouldn't refer to the real strength, right? If it is the real strength, he dare not think about what he will face. If it is the paper strength measured by the Sorting Hat and the magic crystal ball, then it is not difficult to say.

Just then, he found that Rowena smiled at him, and Leslie immediately realized that he didn't need to guess what the situation was - he would definitely face a very difficult challenge.

Maybe I will have to clean up Rowena's mess again.

He was very familiar with this smile.

"Professor Dumbledore, how do you judge the level of the contestants?" Karkaroff's voice came from behind Dumbledore.

He narrowed his eyes, as if he was doubting something.

It was normal for Karkaroff to have doubts. The competition was organized by Hogwarts in the UK, so it would be very easy for some shady dealings to get involved.

For example, students from a certain school are directly defined as high-level students, and then they are given a "hell start" and eliminated in the first round of the competition.

Putting himself in his shoes, Karkaroff felt that if Durmstrang were allowed to host the competition, he would definitely do the same.

Karkaroff asked the principals what was in their hearts, and the principals sitting in the staff seats all looked at him with concern.

They take the level of students very seriously.

"Don't worry, Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore took out the Sorting Hat and the magic crystal ball from his arms, as if he had expected it, and told the principals of other schools about the magical uses of these two items.

"real or fake?"

"Is it so magical?"

The principals were truly enlightened.

"Of course." Dumbledore even gave the crystal ball to the principals of each school for them to demonstrate.

Looking at the crystal balls in their hands, whose brightness was far inferior to Dumbledore's, the headmasters fell silent: Is the gap between themselves and Dumbledore so big?

In the past, although they respected Dumbledore, most of the headmasters did not actually have an intuitive feeling and did not know how far they were from Dumbledore on the road of magic - in fact, some even felt that Dumbledore was already old, while they were in their prime, and as long as the battle lasted longer, they would surely win in the end.

This is normal, as Dumbledore's most glorious moment was defeating Grindelwald.

As a dark wizard who traveled all over the world, Grindelwald left a deep impression on the wizarding world at that time, which also made Dumbledore, who defeated him, reach the peak of his reputation.

But now half a century has passed since Grindelwald's era, and most of the wizards who witnessed Grindelwald's power back then have been buried!

Voldemort, who inherited the title of the Dark Lord, did not have such a wide range of activities, so his reputation was not as terrifying as Grindelwald. Most importantly, Voldemort was not defeated by Dumbledore himself. Although Dumbledore had a reputation of making Voldemort dare not cross the line, he watched Voldemort wreak havoc for decades after all, which made many people feel that Dumbledore was no longer good enough.

It was not until this moment that they realized how wrong they had been.

However, Dumbledore's brilliance cannot be said to be overwhelming. The brilliance of the crystal balls in the hands of Seraphina Picquery, the headmaster of Ilvermorny, and Yuan Danxi, the headmaster of the Institute of Magic, is only slightly inferior to Dumbledore's.

If Dumbledore is in the first tier, then these two are in the second tier. Other principals of magic schools are in the third tier, and some are even worse than the deans of Hogwarts.

The principal of Kodosdoriz, Ekaterina, is an exception because she is too young, but she has maintained a middle level among the principals, which is surprising and has attracted considerable attention.

Because unlike Godric who was confined to the spectator seats, this one is qualified to participate!

The other principals knew all too well what this meant.

So after passing the crystal ball around, Karkaroff attacked Ekaterina again.

"By the way, can we, the headmasters, form a judging panel to ensure the fairness of the competition?" He didn't say it directly, but the headmasters present and the two ministers of the Ministry of Magic understood that he was actually hinting to Dumbledore to seal Catherine in the judging panel.

The principals all gave Karkaroff thumbs up in their hearts and said that he was simply their substitute for their mouths.

Ekaterina's face suddenly turned dark.

In recent years, Kodosdoriz has been in a state of transition, and the whole school is mediocre. In recent years, only a talented student like her has emerged.

But when she received the news from Hogwarts, she had already graduated for three years!

If she wasn't just under the age of twenty-one, Kodosdoriz might even refuse to participate in the championship.

If Hogwarts really banned her, then Kodosdoriz would most likely be at the bottom of the competition.

Everyone's eyes were focused on Dumbledore, wanting to see his attitude.

To be honest, Kodosdorez was indeed taking advantage of a loophole. The 21-year-old limit was originally reserved for magic organizations and individual contestants. Other magic schools allowed students to participate, but Kodosdorez was the only one doing something special.

In addition, Ekaterina has demonstrated such strong strength, so the principals naturally want to ban her.

Dumbledore considered for a moment, then turned to Mr. Henry and gave him the final decision.

"It's clearly written in the rules and regulations that as long as Miss Ekaterina is under the age of twenty-one, she can participate in the competition - it has nothing to do with her age."

"Then she is no longer a student of Kodostorez. Can she still represent Kodostorez in the competition?" This time even Madame Maxime was excluded.

"She is Kodosdoriz's teacher and still maintains her identity as Kodosdoriz." Yuan Danxi suddenly spoke, causing everyone to remain silent for a moment.

"This is unreasonable." Asmo Ndulu, the principal of Ouagadou, was the first to object.

"Yes, this is a game of words!" Madame Maxime straightened her tall and sturdy body, looking down at everyone from above, bringing a strong sense of oppression.

She placed her large hand, which was adorned with many gorgeous opals, on Dumbledore's shoulder and said earnestly, "Albus, think about it carefully. If something like this happened in the first tournament held at Hogwarts, how can we explain it to wizards all over the world?"

She emphasized the word "Hogwarts", and the implication was obvious.

"Madame Maxime, if we blatantly violate the established rules, we will not be able to explain to others. This is a competition for all young wizards under the age of 21, and Miss Ekaterina happens to be a member of Kodostoriz, so I think her participation in the competition is in compliance with the rules - we can change and improve the rules after the game, but now that the competition has begun, we must abide by the rules." Dumbledore said calmly.

"Well, since Albus said so, I have no objection." After a moment, Seraphina Picquery expressed her support for Dumbledore.

No matter how powerful Catherine is, she is just one person.

After three heavyweight wizards and senior officials of the Ministry of Magic expressed their support, the other headmasters had nothing to say and could only reluctantly agree to let Ekaterina participate as a contestant of Kodos Doretz.

Everyone secretly made up their minds to go back and study the rules of the competition carefully to see if there were any loopholes in the rules.

"It looks like we have reached a consensus." Seeing that the conflict was resolved, Dumbledore smiled again: "Then let our contestants come on stage to be tested by the Sorting Hat and the crystal ball."

The principals and officials naturally had no objections.

The participating students from each school and independent contestants lined up in turn and came to the faculty and staff seats to prepare to start taking the test.

"Wait a moment." Before the test began, Seraphina Picquery suddenly stopped the test and turned her head to look at Gryffindor who was sitting not far away. "Mr. Gryffindor, would you like to touch this crystal ball?"

Countless eyes once again focused on the face of this legendary wizard.

Gryffindor laughed after hearing Seraphina's words.

"Of course, of course!" He took the crystal ball and said, "If we had such a good thing back then, maybe the way Hogwarts was sorted would be different."

Everyone smiled.

However, the crystal ball did not change in Gryffindor's hand.

Seeing this, Helga and Rowena's eyes suddenly froze.

"This is beyond the detection limit of the crystal ball." Dumbledore shook his head and explained to everyone.

Everyone present:!!!

I thought Dumbledore was already strong enough, but I didn't expect that this ancient wizard who lived thousands of years ago was even stronger than Dumbledore! I can only say that he is worthy of being an old guy who has lived for thousands of years.

"I see, that's what it is!" Gryffindor also laughed, "Then I'll be more restrained."

As he spoke, he really began to gather the magic power in his body, and soon, the crystal ball burst into the same bright red light as Dumbledore's did at that time.

Now, everyone present believed in Gryffindor’s identity even more. He was a wizard even stronger than Dumbledore!

Helga narrowed her eyes: Judging from the time he spent, it was not much different from Rowena's. If everyone's speed of gathering magic power was similar, then we could probably judge the other party's strength level.

Astoria, who had been watching the show in the audience, suddenly remembered something: it seemed that the same phenomenon had happened when Professor Arius took the crystal ball before?

Hiss—Thinking of this, Astoria couldn't help but take a breath. The contents contained in this were too profound.

After this little episode, the contestants continued to come forward to be tested.

The faces of several headmasters turned ugly: the scores of students in their own school were so low that it was unsightly, with many scoring only 60 or 70 points. This also caused a lot of discussion among the students of Hogwarts.

Because based on these scores, many of them could even qualify for the competition if they changed schools!

Ekaterina and Karkaroff's expressions were particularly ugly, because Kodostoriz and Durmstrang were both at the bottom of the points, and Kodostoriz even had a player with a score below 60 points.

They can only comfort themselves by thinking that the conditions will be better at the start if the score is low.

When it was the turn of the Hogwarts contestants to come forward to be tested, the young wizards in the audience all showed happy expressions.

They knew the situation of the players in their school very well. However, the fact that the players were of high level and the starting conditions were poor also made them a little worried, fearing that their classmates would suffer as a result.

"One hundred points!" When Astoria put the hat on, the score called out by the Sorting Hat made all the people from other schools open their eyes wide.

"This boy is so terrifying!" More than one person said this in their hearts.

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Update is here. Good night~